Scsilink.xif

From SpareMiNT Wiki

This is a driver for MintNet that supports the Daynaport SCSI/Link (a SCSI-to-Ethernet device).

Contents 1 Hardware installation 2 Software installation 3 Performance 4 Version 5 NOTES

[edit] Hardware installation

1. Make sure your system is powered off.
2. Connect the Daynaport SCSI/Link into the SCSI chain of your TT or Falcon. If it is physically the last device in the chain, make sure that termination is on (the 1-0 switch is set to 1), otherwise, make sure that it's off (the switch is set to 0). Set the SCSI id (the rotary switch) to a value that is different from any other device in the chain, and different from the id of the system itself, which is normally 7.
3. Connect the Ethernet side of the device into your Ethernet (if you are using 10baseT, you will need a hub).
4. Power on all the devices in the SCSI chain, before powering on your system.

[edit] Software installation

1. Make sure that you have a SCSIDRV driver on your system; recent versions of HDDRIVER provide this function.
2. Make sure that arbitration is enabled for the SCSIDRV driver, and that the id of the SCSI/Link device is being controlled by SCSIDRV.
3. Copy SCSILINK.XIF to the same folder as your other XIF files; with a current MiNT distribution, that's MINT/1-16-CUR.
4. Update the various configuration files:
   1. /etc/sysconfig/config.if
   2. /etc/sysconfig/domainname
   3. /etc/sysconfig/hostname
   4. /etc/sysconfig/defaultroute
   5. /etc/resolv.conf
5. Reboot MiNT. You should see two 'sign-on' messages from the driver during initialisation; they should look something like this:
   1. DaynaPORT SCSI/Link driver v0.50 initialising ...
   2. DaynaPORT SCSI/Link driver v0.50 (en0) (xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx) on bus id 1/4

Marc-Anton Kehr's e-nick program is a convenient way to update the configuration files. Many thanks to Marc-Anton for this and his wonderful EasyMiNT distribution!

[edit] Performance

Performance was measured by using FTP to transfer a large (~10MB) file between a TT and a Windoze box. The following rates were obtained:

a) FTP server on Windoze, client on TT

PC->TT 130 KB/sec

TT->PC 153 KB/sec

b) FTP server on TT, client on Windoze

PC->TT 107 KB/sec

TT->PC 142 KB/sec

Transfers to the TT are expected to be slower than transfers from it, since the TT has to poll the SCSI/Link hardware for an incoming packet, rather than handle an interrupt. Polling is currently triggered via the VBL interrupt; triggering from the system timer interrupt would improve performance at a cost of increased overhead.

[edit] Version

• 0.50 First public beta release

[edit] NOTES

1. Testing to date has been on a TT running TOS 3.06, with the SCSI/Link connected to the SCSI port; however, it should also work on the ACSI port (see below), and on other TOS-compatible systems including the Falcon. Please let me know if you have had success or problems under other configurations.
2. If you wish to use the ACSI port of an ST, Mega, or TT, you will need (at least) a host adapter that supports SCSI arbitration, i.e. a Link96/Link97. You will also need a device on that port which provides TERMPWR to power the Link9x (the SCSI/Link does not).
3. SCSILINK.XIF is written to support multiple devices (ethernet ports), but that feature has not yet been tested. If you connect two devices to the same Atari system and it works, please let me know!

Roger Burrows Anodyne Software 11/March/2007